History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

Autobiography of
CARSON C. MASIKER
Wasco Co. 1853

     I was born in the town of Virgil, Shane Co. Illinois, February 25, 1652, son of George and Palmyra Eliza Masiker. They were married in 1847 and in 1852 started overland for Oregon. It was the great cholera year on the plains and we were delayed on the Platte by sickness until by the time we crossed the Rocky Mountains it was too late to reach the coast so we went south to Salt Lake and built Fort Box Elder to winter in. Starting from there in the spring we reached Oregon City on the Third of July and settled in Polk Co. near where Fort Yamhill was afterwards built.
     In 1860 Father sold and started for Bitter Root Valley, Montana, but stopped on Ten Mile Creek in Wasco Co., later moving to Dry Creek, south of Dufur, whore I attended school. In April 1862 we moved to what is now known as Poplar Grove and here my father died, April 10, 1863. I worked at different times in almost every county in Eastern Oregon. In November 1896 I came to Hood River and bought a forty acre tract on Neal Creek from Asa Straight where I still reside.
     I was married on March 25th, 1876 to Miss Jennie D. Parish who passed away December 20th, leaving an infant sons George P. Masiker who died in Hood River July, 1908. In 1878 I was married at Columbus, Washington to Miss Mary I. Henderson, who still survives. Five children were born to us.
     I Joined the I.O.O.F. Lodge at Summerville, Union Co., July 24th, 1875, and remained a member of that Lodge until the organization of the Lodge at Odell, of which I am a charter member. In 1880 I was elected a Justice of the Peace, and served eight years, finally resigning to get rid of it. I have been a pioneer in Yamhill, Polk, Wasco, Sherman, Grant and Wheeler Counties and was at Hood. River in 1860, but never considered myself a pioneer of this county. In politics I have always been a Republican, I have always been in favor of giving women the ballot and in favor of abolishing the liquor traffic. I have written numerous sketches on the early history of Grant, Sherman and Wasco Counties, also a number of pieces in verse. Carson C. Masiker.

The Linchpin Wagon and it's Tar Bucket
Song written for the annual reunion of Oregon Pioneers by Carson C. Masiker, 1853, of Hood River.
Tune, "Wait for the Wagon".

Oh, the linchpin wagon what memories it recalls
Of the days when I gazed on the mountains afar,
As it ground through the sand and the alkali dust -
The linchpin wagon with it's bucket of tar.

Chorus

Wait for the wagon the linchpin wagon
The linchpin wagon with its bucket of tar.
When the red men attacked us and fired on the train,
It made us a breastwork again and again,
'T was a bedroom at night and a refuge in war
That linchpin wagon with it 'a bucket of tar.

Chorus

A couch for the sick, the halt and the land
It carried our grub and blankets and game,
Our women and children it brought from afar,
That linchpin wagon with it's bucket of tar.

Chorus

The old pioneers will remember the test
That this wagon withstood in their journey out West;
And always will love it, though the time be afar --
This linchpin wagon with it's bucket of tar.

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